My wife Ann and I married in 1978. We have two adult children. Both are graduates of Belmont University. Russ now works at Belmont in the School of Music and is working on an MBA from Belmont. Maggie is married to Matt Kuyper. She teaches English and is the head volleyball coach at St. Cecilia High School here in Nashville. Ann and I enjoy music, golf, travel, long walks with our dogs, and watching Green Bay Packer football games in our rec room, known in the neighborhood as "The Packer Pub."
My interest in entrepreneurship came early in life. I grew-up with entrepreneurship and small business as topics around the dinner table at night. My family was involved in many ventures. My father left a career in corporate America to pursue an entrepreneurial career in the mid-1970s. Today my father is an active, octogenarian entrepreneur. I was fortunate to be able to be involved in many of my father's entrepreneurial endeavors from an early age. That is where I caught the entrepreneurial bug.
Here at Belmont, I am the inaugural Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship. Previously, I was the Sandra Schulze Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota and was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the University of Kentucky. I have a Doctorate in Business Administration and an MBA from the University of Kentucky, and received my undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
In the late 1980's, I felt the entrepreneurial calling in life and left academics to become the Co-founder and President/CEO of Atlantic Behavioral Health Systems, headquartered in Raleigh, NC. Our company operated a variety of health care facilities and programs and employed over 300 people. After nine years of rapid growth, we negotiating the sale of most of our corporations' business interests, and I returned to academics.
I consult with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues. I also consult with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations.
My current research and teaching interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. I authored or co-authored four books: Organizational Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Financial Management, The Entrepreneurial Educator, and From the Ground Up: Entrepreneurial School Leadership.
My resume is here.
